Page 44 of Embers of You
He sits down next to his new buddy, Duke, and I sigh.
“I think they like each other,” Jameson states.
“You’ll see your new friend again, okay?” I tell my dog, who still seems hesitant to leave. “Come on.”
He huffs, but jumps into the car, and I shut the door behind him, opening mine and turning toward Jameson before climbing in.
“What about me? Will I get to see my new friend again?” He smiles, leaning closer to me.
“So we’re just friends then?” I raise an eyebrow.
“If that’s what it takes to ensure I get to see you again.”
“We’ll see.” I shrug, getting into the driver’s seat.
“You said you wouldn’t run.”
“And I’m not. I am going to drive, though.” I reach for the door, but he shuts it for me. I roll down the window, because as weird as it may sound I look forward to hearing how he says my name when we part. “Goodbye, Jameson.”
“Goodbye, Sutton.”
I’m distractedat work the next day, replaying yesterday over and over in my mind. I’ve spiraled enough to regret it, and try to figure out when it can happen again. Luckily, Lily is here today, and if anyone has the ability to take you out of your own head, it’s her.
She’s high energy and hilarious. She also says things you’d never expect to hear, mostly because she doesn’t stop talking for very long. Which I don’t mind because it’s kept me thoroughlyentertained throughout my day. It’s also kept me from losing my mind even more than I already have.
“So they met on a bondage dating app,” she says, like that’s an extremely normal thing to say when starting a new conversation. Though, maybe the last one hasn’t ended. Truly, I’m not sure.
“Wait, who did?” I shake my head trying to catch up.
“My roommate freshman year, I just said that.”
She may have, but I’m tuning out some of what she says. Or maybe she said it while I was washing or drying a dog and literally couldn’t hear her.
“I didn’t even know that kind of app existed.”
“Me either, but it gets so much worse.” She guides the dog she just bathed into the kennels to dry in there for a little. “So, we all go out for dinner and she said this guy, Steve, was going to meet up with her later. What she didn’t say was that he was going to join us for dinner.”
I hum, listening to her as she continues her extremely animated storytelling.
“This man in a suit walks up to our table and introduces himself as Thomas. I thought he was the manager because how he was dressed, but he sits down at our table, and I’m really fucking confused. I’m looking at Anna and our other friends wondering who this man is.”
I think Anna is the roommate, but there’s been so many names thrown at me from her stories that I’m losing track.
“Turns out his name is Thomas, but she thought it was Steve. I don’t know how she screwed that up, but anyway she says he’s joining us at this bar we’re going to next.”
I’m pretty sure she’s not twenty-one, but even if I wanted to ask to clarify anything she doesn’t pause long enough to give me the chance.
“We leave the restaurant and he goes to his car, and when Stevemas opened the door, his car was full of rubber ducks.”
“What?” I screech.
“Yup, seat covers, steering wheel cover, floor mats, and just loose rubber ducks everywhere.”
“Did he have a Jeep?” I know it’s a thing that when you have a cool Jeep, people will leave rubber ducks on it. Mine has gotten a couple, but I would never go as far as to have seat covers and floor mats of them.
“Nope, it was a small car with just a fuckload of rubber ducks. Anyway, we all went to the bar and Anna ended up going home with Thomeve, but brought him back to our dorm so I had to spend the night in our other friend’s room, which sucked because I had to sleep on the floor. The next morning I went back to our room, and when I opened the door there were condoms everywhere.”
I grimace at the visual.
